


Ordinary Encounters

by misura



Category: American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-05
Updated: 2012-05-05
Packaged: 2017-11-04 21:28:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/398379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brief meetings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ordinary Encounters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opalmatrix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/gifts).



> prompt: _Having Sam run into one of these other characters would be cool – Laura especially_ (characters listed: Bast, Laura Moon, Zorya Polunochnaya, Easter)

"That car must be a real chick magnet, huh?" Natalie says, although when she says it, Sam doesn't know her name yet. She just knows Natalie's hair is almost the exact same shade of purple as Sam's new old car, and even if she still might share the story of how she convinced _someone else_ to buy it when she was high (it's an important point and difference: buying a purple car yourself, or getting someone else to buy one), she will probably wait until she knows whether or not Natalie likes it.

"You bet."

It's about fifteen minutes before her shift at the Coffee House starts, because Sam likes to be a bit early and because traffic can be unpredictable sometimes, even in Madison.

Natalie smiles, so Sam adds: "Well, it only works on the ones who are both smart _and_ pretty." She feels it's a bit of a guy thing to say, really.

 

There's a shoe store in Chicago in one of those old buildings that's full of corners and short stairs and doorways that make you feel like shopping there is like setting out on an expedition to parts unknown, like an adventure.

It's not always easy to find your size (they, whoever 'they' are, keep changing where everything is, or so Sam overhears one self-proclaimed loyal customer explain to another one) but Sam's been here for three days in a row now and she thinks she's getting the hang of it.

The second hand bookstore two blocks over is slightly better, because it's virtually impossible to see a book and discover that, on closer examination, it won't fit. Still, the shoe store is quite nice, too. Sam believes she might have fallen for a pair of burgundy boots; not quite suitable for daily wear, yet utterly perfect for those special occasions when you might want to be wearing a pair of boots to walk all over someone.

On the fourth day, she arrives at the store to find someone trying on the pair of boots she's slowly begun to think of as hers.

On the fifth day, the boots are gone and Sam has donated one of her sweaters to someone who seemed to need it.

 

Claudine was nice when Sam first met her. A little too sure of herself, maybe, but she never acted like she was sure of Sam or anyone else, which seemed a hopeful sign to Sam. It wasn't as if Sam didn't understand why someone would want to start believing in others by first learning to believe in herself.

It was just that, over time, it was as if Claudine stopped believing in herself, too. Stopped believing she could be nice to other people, that she could be happy doing nothing, going nowhere, spending time with Sam.

"You always believe the best of people," she told Sam, making it sound like a complaint, like believing in people was by definition a bad, immature, childish thing to do.

 

On a rooftop in Chicago, in the middle of a winter's night, a pale haired woman pulls down the moon and gives it to her as a gift for no reason at all.

It's a coin trick. It's magic by any other name.

The next day, Sam almost gives away the coin that's not the moon when someone offers to tell her fortune; it's an older woman with an Eastern European accent who instructs Sam to cross her palm with silver, although it turns out paper money will do, too, in a pinch.

"There is a very handsome young man I see in your future," the woman tells her. "I see - yes, a spring wedding."

"With his sister, I guess." Sam grins. It's a crisp, cold day. At the Coffee House, they'll be pouring people hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows for their favorite customers. "Will it be a legal wedding?"

The woman scowls at her. "Is not nice making fun of old woman such as myself."

"I'm sorry." Sam doesn't really think there's anything she should be apologizing for. It might even be true, both about the handsome young man and the spring wedding. If not this spring, then there's always next year.

"You hang on to that coin now. My sister, she is too generous to be giving away these things."

 

After Natalie, there will be Caroline, and after Caroline, Sam will go hitchhiking to El Paso, even though her aunt will have moved elsewhere some while ago. She will tell herself it's good to get away for a bit, and this will be true.

Near Cairo, she will pick up a small brown cat that she will find wandering around, looking lost. She will smuggle the cat into her hotel room, and she will dream of sex with a stranger and wake up with clawmarks on her back.

She will feel better after a shower, and ask around to find the cat's owners, who will turn out to be two quite polite and pleasant gentlemen, married in all but name, and then she will go back to Madison and be happy.

 

 _Curvaceous_ , Sam thinks, then wonders where the word's come from. One of her textbooks, maybe.

"Out of curiosity, may I ask you something?"

It's still a quiet time at the Coffee House. Sam gives it another half hour or so before things will pick up. "Yes, I can still go home and enjoy a cup of coffee after I've worked here. And yes, I do have a girlfriend."

"That wasn't actually what I was going to ask."

Some of the neighboorhood kids will be hunting eggs right around now. Last year, they came home with an old radio, several comic books and an actual live chicken, which turned out to be a runaway. "Ask away. No promise that I'll answer, or if I do, that you'll like it."

"Do you know where the word 'Easter' comes from?"

The question feels oddly point blank, as if this is the point in the movie where the music swells dramatically, indicating a Significant Dramatic Moment. Sam doesn't see what the fuss would be about. "Sure. It's from Eostre, who was some sort of goddess. _Is_ some sort of goddess, I guess," she corrects herself. Deities are like faerietales and unlike Indie rock bands: they're never have-beens. "I think her name meant something like 'shiny'."

"Shiny." The woman seems amused by the word, and Sam feels oddly light-headed at seeing her smile and knowing herself to be the cause of it. It's not like with Natalie, which feels warm and pleasant and comfortable.

"Well, that's what Wiki says, anyway."

The smile slips a little, just enough to make Sam aware of her feet again, and the ground they're on. "And do you believe it?"

"I know they say you shouldn't believe anything you've read on the Internet." And you definitely, definitely shouldn't be using it in a paper, unless it's a paper about 'things I read on the Internet'. "But sure, why not? Sounds like a solid enough explanation."

 

Marguerite Olsen becomes Marguerite Mulligan that May.

It's a lovely wedding, and Sam is sure there's been a handsome young man or two who've crossed her path, these past months.

Natalie comes along, because Sam thought maybe it would be okay to ask, and Natalie apparently thought it would be okay to agree to meet a little bit more of Sam's family. They take the purple Toyota.

"If I ever get a new car, I might paint it purple again." Sam doesn't really expect to get a new car any time soon.

Natalie considers. "Be easier just to find another poor guy who got high and let someone talk him into doing it. Cheaper, too, probably."

Sam says "Yes, probably," and finds she can picture herself and Natalie five years from now, still together. It is, she decides, not at all an unpleasant or uncomfortable feeling.


End file.
